THE TREATY OF LONDON, 1871 45
the other Powers not being in a position to make war,
Gortchakoff sent a circular dispatch in October, i8yo.3
In it Russia protested that fifteen years' experience had
proved the falseness of the assumptions in the Treaty of
Paris that neutralization of the Black Sea would safeguard
the peace of all interested. In reality, while Russia was
disarming in the Black Sea, Turkey maintained unlimited
naval forces in the Aegean and Straits, and France and
England could mobilize their squadrons in the Mediter-
ranean. There was, so he claimed, a contradiction between
the Treaty itself and the attached Convention of the Straits;
the former forbade war-ships to sail the Black Sea at any
time, the latter prohibited them from passing the Straits
into the Black Sea only in time of peace. This exposed
the shores of Russia to attack from even less powerful
states, while Russia was unprepared. Moreover, in the in-
terval the treaty had been modified with reference to
Moldavia and Wallachia; infractions had occurred in that
"whole squadrons" of foreign men-of-war had been admit-
ted to the Black Sea, etc.4
"After maturely considering this question, His Imperial
Majesty has arrived at the following conclusions, which you
are instructed to bring to the knowledge of the Government
to which you are accredited:
3 Hertslet, Map of Europe, Vol. Ill, p. 1892; Goriainow, op. cit., p. 156;
Phillipson and Buxton, op. cit., p. 105.
4 "In 1871 a return laid before Parliament showed that the number
of Foreign Ships of War which had passed the Straits were: In 1862,
i British; in 1866, i American; in 1868, i American, 2 Austrian, i French,
i Russian; in 1869, i Prussian. It also appeared that in 7 other instances,
questions had arisen with regard to the passage of Foreign Ships of War
through the Straits, but that in no case had a violation of treaty been
shown to have taken place." Hertslet, op. cit.. Vol. Ill, p. 1895, note.
Also Young, in loco.